March 29, 2011

Why the US Tortures People
Why did the Bush Administration adopt torture on a mass scale in Iraq and elsewhere? According to the recently released notes of a CIA psychologist, the acquisition of information was only a minor part of it. More important, it seems, was inducing compliance, e.g., in obtaining useful false confessions such as those confirming Bush Administration lies.

But there was an additional reason for the obscene practices undertaken at Abu Ghraib and still continued elsewhere. It was to test theories about human exploitation, with the aim of devising techniques for turning victims into willing agents of their captors.

The sexual humiliation of American citizens
The implementation of sexual humiliation and X-irradiation of American air travelers by US Transportation, Security (so-called) Administration presumably represent a practical application of the developing technologies of human exploitation, the better to achieve compliance of the people in the destruction of the American Republic.

Bad news from Fukushima
Workers at Japan Nuke Plant 'Lost the Race' to Save Reactor, Expert Says. More here about the apparent meltdown Fukushima reactor 2.

Truth and decency: the first casualties of war
Former UK Ambassador, Craig Murray has a fine, short sharp piece today on the grotesque hypocrisy of those bombing brown people in Libya for their own good. And, here, for the British Moslem slant: "Democracy Will Bring Oppression," "Gaddafi and All World Leaders are Tyrants" and what I hesitate to endorse, "Shariah Will Dominate the World".

Global temperature: how to the declines were hid
For those interested in the forensic analysis of climate science, a fascinating summary of evidence of data manipulation by the anthropogenic climate warming science community in today's post at Climate Audit.

Canada: Election Campaign Frolics
Canada's national election is off to a brisk start. A couple of days ago, a billboard appeared at the main entrance to the University of Victoria announcing Patrick Hunt, Conservative. Overnight, someone added the words "I fear" before the candidate's name. By next morning the candidate's image had been enhanced by fearsome eyebrows, a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache, and fangs dripping with blood, which cheered my commute to the office greatly. This morning, the candidate's name had been revised from Hunt to, yes, you guessed it. Later, when taking a trip to the bank, I noticed a couple of fellows dismantling the billboard. I wonder what next. Will another candidate take their chances at the same spot? To be continued ....

Gaddafi not beat yet
Gaddafi strikes back. Libyan government tanks and rockets have driven back rebels who attempted an assault on Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte. Opposition fighters fleeing in a panicked scramble pleaded for international airstrikes that never came. Meantime, Obama defends US bombing of brown people. But seven out of ten Brits fear a Libyan quagmire, and Gaddafi accuses the West of a barbaric, Hitlerian, genocidal war against a developing nation.

Bombing Libyans to save them: a report from the ground
Who and what we are bombing today? According to an Open Letter From Russian Doctors In Libya To The President Of The Russian Federation:

... Today, 24 March 2011, NATO aircraft and the U.S. all night and all morning bombed a suburb of Tripoli – Tajhura (where, in particular, is Libya’s Nuclear Research Center). Air Defense and Air Force facilities in Tajhura were destroyed back in the first 2 days of strikes and more active military facilities in the city remained, but today the object of bombing are barracks of the Libyan army, around which are densely populated residential areas, and next to it – the largest in Libya’s Heart Centers. ... Bombs and rockets struck residential houses and fell near the hospital. The glass of the Cardiac Center building was broken, and in the building of the maternity ward for pregnant women with heart disease a wall collapsed and part of the roof. ...

Significant nuclear fallout from Fukushima reaches Western Canada
Iodine-131 from Japans shattered nuclear reactors has now reached the Canadian West coast. "On March 18," the Globe and Mail reports, "the level was zero, but on March 19 it was 9 Bq/l and on March 20 it was 12 Bq/l. On March 25 the level was 11 Bq/l.

"In Japan, a health warning was issued recently when iodine-131 levels reached 210 Bq/l in drinking water. The Japanese standard for iodine-131 in drinking water is 100 Bq/l if the water is to be consumed by an infant, and 300 Bq/l if the water is to be consumed by an adult. ..."